Jozef Chúťka's blog

This may be pretty known thing, but I would like to share it. When creating a new AIR project in flash builder (File / New / Flex Project / … Desktop – AIR), and you do not require flex framework, just rename the “Main application file” to whatever.as (instead of whatever.mxml) in the last step of creation wizard (screenshot attached). Or, if your project already exists with main app.mxml file, just create new file with the same name app.as and remove the old one (app.mxml). Make sure your main application class extends Sprite.

This post is about Adobe Melrose – the new Lab project from Adobe, and my first contact with it. I hope to be able to continuously update this article so you can get perfect view of what is going on when you decide to use Melrose. Lets begin with public static const MELROSE:

Melrose (codename) enables developers and publishers to distribute and make money with Adobe® AIR® applications through application stores. Melrose provides a repository that distributes applications to multiple application stores so that publishers can reach millions of users. Intel AppUp Center and the Adobe AIR Marketplace are the first two storefronts available in Melrose. Melrose also provides analytics that let publishers measure success of their applications.

Read the rest of this entry »

When working with Adobe Merlose licensing code I hit MY_UNIQUE_32_HEX_NUM variable containing some generated string (XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX). As there was nothing within my emails from melrose that would correspond to that string, investigation got started. Soon after I found Merlose FAQ saying that MY_UNIQUE_32_HEX_NUM is a GUID that you choose and is immutable for the lifetime of the application, followed by Q&A combo:

Q: Do I need to randomly generate the application UID that is passed to the* checkLicense() *call or will Adobe give one to me?
A: You need to generate the UID. We recommend you use a GUID generator tool like: http://www.guidgenerator.com/online-guid-generator.aspx. Generate your own unique number and plug it into your code…

Mistery solved!

I was asked to make AIR compatibile version of FacebookOAuthGraph class. It was a nice little challenge for me, where I learn some new things about AIR. E.g. how easy it is to define the JavaScript callback directly from ActionScipt (HTMLLoader.window.methodName)… There are more ways to make authorization process work for you, I have chosen the one with popup window. In order to make FacebookOAuthGraph work for AIR, the short extending is required, instead of creating popup window from JavaScript, popup is created by HTMLLoader.createRootWindow (no ExternalInterface required)…

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi folks! Today, while mounting some of my projects into AIR, I realized that it would be great if I could pusblish AIR badges over Facebook. You know what? That is possible! I have created a simple flex application + facebook application that, based on parameters, generates AIR badge for an app. Now its time to share the stuff with you, feel free to publish your AIR badges, and let me know how do you like it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a quick tip how to check the version of your installed AIR application from an application running in flash player. In order to make your AIR application (system) be able to respond to the requests for installed version correctly you need to define allowBrowserInvocation within your AIR descriptor file (app.xml). If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to query version information on your application:

<allowBrowserInvocation>true</allowBrowserInvocation>

Now your AIR application will respond correctly with its installed version. With this setting on, the installed AIR application can be launched via the browser invocation feature (by the user clicking a link in a page in a web browser). Be sure to consider security implications.

Now, to get version info from any application running in flash player (or AIR) you simply call getApplicationVersion() method on air.swf file located on adobe domain.

Read the rest of this entry »